Ya'll, did you hear the news? It's National Hot Tea Month - the whole month of January (imagine that).
I drink tea everyday. It's close to national disaster status if I don't get my tea - horror of horrors, if I have to go for more than one day! I've been known to stuff tea bags in my pockets in case of emergency. It's a hundred and how many ever degrees? "Oh, I'd love a nice hot cup of tea."
I'm not an emotional person - unless "tea is the tears I never shed". Hmmm, I kind of like that quote. I just made it up and I must remember it. I'm so brilliant sometimes! Perhaps that is why the British are known for their stiff upper lip? It could be the tea.
I love it when people direct me to "goodies" on the internet, so....
The only thing better than a nice hot cup of tea, is a nice hot cup of tea with some delicous morsel of goodness to go with it! Have you ever heard of Tea Time Magazine? Miss Janice reminded me of them in this post. I confess I don't have a subscription (something to think about though when I live in a "house" again!), but I have had the pleasure of looking through some of their past issues. Beautiful, lovely, mouthwatering pictures, and recipes for the little delicousnesses!(Okay, I know that is not a word, but I wanted to use it SOOOO much. So I did.)
Pause for station identification....
Emergency supplies of tea come in handy - we're out of tea (gasp!) and my sister was just looking for some so I pulled my purse over, found the little zippered pouch and unzipped it. Inside was a tea bag and I gave it to her. I'm such a good big sister. I have one tea bag of good black tea still in there. Unfortunately, that is not going to last me through the day. Uh, what in the world was I thinking?
Back to Tea Time, their website is a sampling of their magazine. If you hop over using one of the links, under the Indulgences section, they have beautiful photos and delicious looking recipes. I think these look especially tasty; Basil-Lemon Scones and Blackberry Bavarian Cream Note: Only four recipes come up under each section, but click on the "More" down below and you get a whole list!
By the way, I think a subscription to Tea Time magazine would make a terrific gift. Birthday, Bridal Shower?
Just some inspiration in the spirit of National Hot Tea Month!
Hugs to the girls, scowls to boys,*smile* Just kidding. Well, maybe.
This is T.W.
In the interests of full disclosure, well full disclosure as far as this goes: This is my own personal, un-bribed thoughts and opinions regarding Tea Time Magazine. They don't know I exist - the nerve of some people! However, since they seem to have a picture of MY spoon, I'm getting suspicious.
Showing posts with label tea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tea. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Authentic Shortbread
The recipe is one my grandmother makes and is from an old English Cookbook that she brought to the states with her. Here are the ingredients for real shortbread, but the key really is in the baking. Long and slow. America is a wonderful country, but they rush their shortbread. And that just won't do.
Shortbread
1/2 lbs. flour (1 cup)
1/4 lbs. butter (1/2 cup)
2 oz. sugar (1/4 cup)
Beat sugar and butter to cream. Using a pastry blender or knives, cut flour in until mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Press into a 7" tin and bake for 50 minutes at 3oo degrees. I've adjusted the oven temperature slightly from what my grandmother uses, but she likes her shortbread more brown. She bakes it at 325 degrees, but I don't know if she cooks it quite as long. The lower temperature gives you good flavor and a lovely light color. While still warm, sprinkle with granulated sugar, and cut. Cool in tin (pan). Store cookies in an airtight container to keep them fresh.
We usually triple or quadruple the recipe and cook in a large pan with the crumb mixture pressed to about 1/2" thick.
For my brother's wedding I pressed the crumb mixture into mini muffin cups and adjusted the baking time accordingly. It made for a nice presentation on the tea buffet. A little time consuming though, so fortunately my sisters finished up the project.
These cookies are perfect for a four o'clock cuppa'.
Shortbread
1/2 lbs. flour (1 cup)
1/4 lbs. butter (1/2 cup)
2 oz. sugar (1/4 cup)
Beat sugar and butter to cream. Using a pastry blender or knives, cut flour in until mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Press into a 7" tin and bake for 50 minutes at 3oo degrees. I've adjusted the oven temperature slightly from what my grandmother uses, but she likes her shortbread more brown. She bakes it at 325 degrees, but I don't know if she cooks it quite as long. The lower temperature gives you good flavor and a lovely light color. While still warm, sprinkle with granulated sugar, and cut. Cool in tin (pan). Store cookies in an airtight container to keep them fresh.
We usually triple or quadruple the recipe and cook in a large pan with the crumb mixture pressed to about 1/2" thick.
For my brother's wedding I pressed the crumb mixture into mini muffin cups and adjusted the baking time accordingly. It made for a nice presentation on the tea buffet. A little time consuming though, so fortunately my sisters finished up the project.
These cookies are perfect for a four o'clock cuppa'.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Tea Tales
In our household tea is not a luxury, it is an everyday necessity. There is always a fresh pot in the morning to start the day, sometimes one around eleven, though often we have coffee at this time, accept father who doesn’t drink coffee but once in a blue moon, and then four o’clock tea.
For as long as I can remember, tea has been part of our life. Father always had his tea mug, which changed fairly frequently, either with the latest gift, or when it got broken, but the mug was always big. Father takes honey and cream in his tea (cream as in milk), but mother just has cream. And so it has passed down; all the gentlemen in our family drink their tea like father, with perhaps one exception, and all the girls take theirs like mother.
Last year I was with my four younger sister in the first group to arrive on a camping trip to Hells Gate State Park on a warm summer day. We arrived at about four o’clock in the afternoon and set up camp, including the propane stove because no matter if it was nigh 100 degrees, I wanted my afternoon cup of tea! We set up a very cute little camping area, with white wooden boxes, stainless steel dishes and donned adorable aprons.
Then came the propane stove. I had never actually set up a propane stove before, but how hard can it be? We got the stove set up and turned it on, put on a pot of water and started worrying about the funny smell. All safety conscious, that aroma was not right, so we kept a close eye on the stove, thinking back over the setup and worrying. Pretty soon I noticed the flame, not from the burner, but from the feed valve from the cylinder. Aught, oh, we have a problem.
I wasn’t certain just shutting the propane off was such a good idea, that cylinder had me a little worried, the last thing I wanted was to create an explosion. We had a fire extinguisher, but was that going to work? Now is when you call your brother, who is very fortunately a volunteer Firefighter.
(Don’t let that volunteer fool you, those guys have to have all the same basic certification as the paid guys, they volunteer countless hours, and they don’t get paid. Go volunteers!)
After much discussion, my brother said to go ahead and wait for the park people to arrive, which some of my sisters had gone speeding off to get. This was dry Idaho, we didn’t want to be responsible for starting a wildfire. Now, don’t ask me why the guys in the camping space almost directly across from ours didn’t come over and at least offer some assistance. It would have seemed to me that the casual observer would have realized we had a problem.
Anyway, my sister and I were watching the fire gradually getting larger and larger until the entire stove was engulfed in flames. My brother had told us to use the extinguisher if it got too bad, and at that point I decided we had reached the too bad stage and told my sister to hit it. And she did, with great delight, since she has always wanted to use an extinguisher.
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The young Park Ranger did eventually arrive and he disconnected the propane cylinder and told us they had been having trouble with that particular type of stove (I don't know, we've had the stove for years with never any trouble. Did we not hook it up right?). I thanked him for his assistance and told him, “All I wanted was a cup of tea!”
Hot weather, hot tea. We’re talking Idaho – do you think he was worried he’d strayed into a female nut house?
He can think what he will, there I times if I didn’t have a nice cup of tea, I would go nuts!
If it’s a bad day around our house, we refer to it as a whole pot day. In other words, one person could drink the whole pot! This goes back to an old family story about a grandmother having difficulty changing a baby and when she was done, she made herself a pot of tea, “and drank the whole thing.”
I understand perfectly.
For as long as I can remember, tea has been part of our life. Father always had his tea mug, which changed fairly frequently, either with the latest gift, or when it got broken, but the mug was always big. Father takes honey and cream in his tea (cream as in milk), but mother just has cream. And so it has passed down; all the gentlemen in our family drink their tea like father, with perhaps one exception, and all the girls take theirs like mother.
Last year I was with my four younger sister in the first group to arrive on a camping trip to Hells Gate State Park on a warm summer day. We arrived at about four o’clock in the afternoon and set up camp, including the propane stove because no matter if it was nigh 100 degrees, I wanted my afternoon cup of tea! We set up a very cute little camping area, with white wooden boxes, stainless steel dishes and donned adorable aprons.
Then came the propane stove. I had never actually set up a propane stove before, but how hard can it be? We got the stove set up and turned it on, put on a pot of water and started worrying about the funny smell. All safety conscious, that aroma was not right, so we kept a close eye on the stove, thinking back over the setup and worrying. Pretty soon I noticed the flame, not from the burner, but from the feed valve from the cylinder. Aught, oh, we have a problem.
I wasn’t certain just shutting the propane off was such a good idea, that cylinder had me a little worried, the last thing I wanted was to create an explosion. We had a fire extinguisher, but was that going to work? Now is when you call your brother, who is very fortunately a volunteer Firefighter.
(Don’t let that volunteer fool you, those guys have to have all the same basic certification as the paid guys, they volunteer countless hours, and they don’t get paid. Go volunteers!)
After much discussion, my brother said to go ahead and wait for the park people to arrive, which some of my sisters had gone speeding off to get. This was dry Idaho, we didn’t want to be responsible for starting a wildfire. Now, don’t ask me why the guys in the camping space almost directly across from ours didn’t come over and at least offer some assistance. It would have seemed to me that the casual observer would have realized we had a problem.
Anyway, my sister and I were watching the fire gradually getting larger and larger until the entire stove was engulfed in flames. My brother had told us to use the extinguisher if it got too bad, and at that point I decided we had reached the too bad stage and told my sister to hit it. And she did, with great delight, since she has always wanted to use an extinguisher.
.JPG)
The young Park Ranger did eventually arrive and he disconnected the propane cylinder and told us they had been having trouble with that particular type of stove (I don't know, we've had the stove for years with never any trouble. Did we not hook it up right?). I thanked him for his assistance and told him, “All I wanted was a cup of tea!”
Hot weather, hot tea. We’re talking Idaho – do you think he was worried he’d strayed into a female nut house?
He can think what he will, there I times if I didn’t have a nice cup of tea, I would go nuts!
If it’s a bad day around our house, we refer to it as a whole pot day. In other words, one person could drink the whole pot! This goes back to an old family story about a grandmother having difficulty changing a baby and when she was done, she made herself a pot of tea, “and drank the whole thing.”
I understand perfectly.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Heels and Hay
My sisters and I were dressed for a luncheon tea in town, long skirts, heels, and I was wearing a wide brimmed hat. We’d already made our appearance at the grocery. Mother asked us to stop on the way home and pick up a couple bales of alfalfa. You read that correctly.
Uh, huh. We are very dutiful girls, but it was with chagrin that we anticipated meeting the farmer who had already previously commented on far less dressy attire.
We were spared.
He wasn’t home, everyone from the farm was at a horse event except his wife, who would sell us the hay. Yes, not load, sell.
When duty calls, one answers, so my sister and I, heels and all, each loaded a bale of hay, weighing about 80 -90 pounds each. (I’m not quite sure on the weight, but others with more experience say it is so).
Indeed.
Afterwards, I paid out of my pink clutch, returned to the car door and dusted off the alfalfa leaves and retrieved my white silk scarf from off the seat. This I draped around my neck, tossed the end over my shoulder in a dramatic gesture and reentered the vehicle. When you do unusual things, do them with flair.
Heels and hay? Well, why ever not?
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